The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
Sara (NJ) on 12/29/2023:
Omg! I have the worst sinus infection ever after eating Haagen Daz too! I used to get them more frequently in the past but I haven't gotten one in a while and I haven't had Haagen Daz in a long time. Then my brother brought some over (one of my favorite flavors) and I had some and the next day I had body aches and then the day after that severe congestion which turned into the worst sinus infection. I'm on antibiotics and still feel horrible. Now I remember that I stopped eating Haagen Daz because I made the connection years ago that it was causing my sinus infections.
I have eaten certain brands of ice cream that brought on serious sinus infections. I use to eat Blizzards at DQ and had to stop it when I realized it was giving me sinus issues.
I can confirm Earth Clinic’s findings. I had Haagen Daz ice cream on Tuesday and came down with flu like symptoms and sinus infection on Thursday. This happened in the past after having a Wendy’s shake as well.
Prov31J (Somewhere Over The Rainbow (KS)) on 11/06/2019:
I was ALWAYS having sinus infections after ice creams especially in the 80's and 90's... at some point, I read of sage helping with sinus infections... Worked great and I've not had as much of the sinus infections (of course,
I rarely eat ice cream and the chemically enhanced soft serve type "frozen desserts" either...). Even the kitchen spice bottle like you use for cooking Thanksgiving dinner - just plopped a teaspoon in hot tea water and let it steep 3-5 minutes or longer. At first I wanted it with stevia or honey to deal with the sage astringency/flavor - but now I can just shoot it straight. Be prepared to spend some time in the restroom bringing all the phlegm up - doesn't sound pretty, but the pain goes bye-bye with every glob that I spit up and out into the trash (I shouldn't have to tell you all to not "recycle" it by swallowing whatever you cough. It only buys you a little time until it comes back up so you still need to clear it out of your sinus passages!!).
We bought some ice cream. It was dairy substitute ice cream. Two days later, major sinus infection pain, major pain it hurt to open my eyes, could not sleep for two days. I decided to mixed coconut oil with few drop eucalyptus oil and two drops of peppermint oil and one drop of tea tree oil and few drops of DMSO. I mixed it all together and rubbed in over my sinus every hour wore soft hat on head and went to bed. I felt much better. Would of never guessed that ice cream is so toxic.
We bought some ice cream. It was dairy substitute ice cream. Two days later, major sinus infection pain, major pain it hurt to open my eyes, could not sleep for two days. I decided to mixed coconut oil with few drop eucalyptus oil and two drops of peppermint oil and one drop of tea tree oil and few drops of DMSO. I mixed it all together and rubbed in over my sinus every hour wore soft hat on head and went to bed. I felt much better. Would of never guessed that ice cream is so toxic.
I have just Googled about this issue. I am affected from dunkin donuts creamer they use. I don't need to drink much in the coffee and I instantly have this reaction everytime. I always drank it black now with creamer and get instant sinus reactions than goes away the next day. I am interested in learning more and helping anyway I can. This is the only information I found online that can link to my issue.
We eat non GMO organic and perhaps ice cream maybe two times in ten years. One day at the supermarket they had big ice cream sale . Häagen-Dazs and Talenti, we bought both ate some . That night I noticed by eyes hurt so bad, hurt to move them. and I had insomnia my frontal sinuses were inflamed feeling . I did not link it to ice cream. My husband was sleeping he was not feeling so good. That night we ate more ice cream next day I felt like I had a mega sinus infection, I felt so weird I was forgetting things and I had migraine, we were going to go to the emergency dept, decided to wait to see my MD on Monday. I'm stunned that ice cream from my childhood days has turned into a dangerous poison with all sort of chemicals! No ice cream for us ever, unless I make it at home. end of story.
You want the connection, here it is: Balsam of Peru and Balsam of Tolu.
These two "ingredients" are basically tree saps from some South American trees and they are basically the same thing. They are commonly used to "naturally flavor" many foods and also widely used in perfumes. This probably explains it if you are allergic to perfumes and scents, and/or if ice cream bothers your sinuses. It contains compounds that are chemically the same or similar to cinnamon, clove, vanilla, citrus, etc and can be extracted and used much more cheaply than the real thing.
Looking over the chemical names listed above for the Burger King Strawberry Milkshake, I recognize many of those chemical compounds as easily derivable from Balsam of Peru and Balsam of Tolu. (http://www.rain-tree.com/balsam.htm)
They can put it in ANY food or beverage and label it simply as "natural flavor", so it can be in anything you eat that says "natural flavor" or even potentially "artificial flavor". It is also the number two contact dermatitis allergen at 15% of skin all tests showing "positive" results, just behind nickel. If 15% of people's skin is allergic to it, logic would dictate that the rest of their body probably would not like it either if ingested or inhaled, especially the delicate mucous membranes of sinuses and digestive tracts.
Research it yourself and see if avoiding "natural flavors" is worth it.
Also, petition your local government and tell them to make manufacturers label EVERYTHING that is in their foods and personal care products! If it is going in or on us, we have a right to know what is in it!
I have had my suspicions for some time now about my reaction to chocolate chip mint ice cream. I seem to always get sick with bronchitis that lasts months. I have been a skeptic of this connection since I grew up eating ice cream ( this flavor always a favorite) with no problems. I did it again last Friday night and it started Saturday and I have been stick with bronchial asthma for a week. I also get sick eating cold cereals with bht that didn't bother me as a kid. This site puts it together for me. I'm done with ice cream. Is it the corn in cereals (the rare treat of Lucky Charms)? Or the BHT?
Thank you so much, I am in the throws of a megga sinus attack with no other reason for it than a new brand of icecream which states its the Smooth icecream with the worlds finest vanilla flavour! Sourced from Madagascan vanilla..........Now I am informed and will go back to making my own with homegrown strawberries and NO artificial flavours.. Its such a relief to learn its not the icecream as such but once again its the Ad-ins.....
Cider vinegar massage and steaming are finally providing me relief thanks to sites like yours who care enough to help.
I am so happy to have been directed to your site. So much information. The ice cream/sinusitis connection is especially interesting, since I have several friends/family members that suffer terribly with sinus trouble.
I don't have any cures but I wanted to share some information that a nurse (7th Day Adventist) told me, during a discussion about nutrition. One of her statements was so simple as to render it mind-boggling. She said:
Everyone forgets that God made MILK for baby cows!
And we wonder why, even in raw form, we can't tolerate it??
I knew it!!! I should have looked this up years ago! Thank you. I get horribly sick every single time after eating my favorite ice cream, Hagendaz vanilla Swiss almond. I am sick today, sinus and all. Had homemade papaya shake with carnation evaporated milk last night. So was it the milk? Was it the brown sugar? Was it that it was too cold? Or all of the above? I would really appreciate your feedback. thanks again to everyone.
3 days ago I celebrated a birthday with a friend here in my home all my life I delt with sinusitis since I was 16. I picked up a DQ icecream cake for her to share with her family. I had decent sized piece. Next day had pressure on my ears and face seen that my face was swollen. I just assumed it was allgeries by the next day I was in so much pain my ears were closed up like being on an air plane running 102 fever and really bad virtago. Have a netti but the water not going through did natural healing search found this Page and went holey #*+". I have reflected back on past events and realized I had ice cream every time I got sick. This is just mind blowing.
If you have problems with Sinusitis it is very important to avoid cold foods like ice cream, freezes, and ice chip drinks of any kind. Snow cones is also a no no for sinusitis suffers. AND KEEP YOUR HEAD WARM WITH A HAT OR KNIT CAP. DON'T ALLOW YOUR HEAD TO BECOME COLD ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT. In fact it is probably best to keep your entire body warm.
I am mostly well from my Sinusitis but I bought a Vanilla Bean Cappuccino at Starbucks and this cold drink with ice chip (that is so delicious) started a Sinusitis attack on me. I now have to avoid them. Benadryl will usually help an attack! Warmth is a must!
Thank you for your article on ice cream and sinus infections, Saturday I went to my local market they had Klondike bars buy one get one free, I been waking up everyday since with a horrible headache and clogged nasal passages, like it says in the article I do not have a runny nose. I just wanted to share my experience so anyone reading this knows it is true, from now on I will be staying away from ice cream.
I haven't had a history of sickness, and I believe I have a fairly good immune system. A few weeks ago, ice-cream was on sale, so I bought two packs. After finishing the first (chocolate), I opened up the last pack last Saturday, this was some three flavour (I never really care what I buy, like I said I've never really had any major problems). The next morning I had what seemed like a cold. I ignored it, had some cold medications and went off to work, from there it was downhill. I thought it might just be the weather, I bought neo-citran to end the pain in my ears (sore throat). It helped me sleep, but my lungs were full of mucus the next morning. Its been a few days now (10 days). I haven't fully recovered, it is getting better. But atleast now I know, whats wrong, its a great relief, having read this post. I just wanted to post my experience here so that people realize this is not a fluke, it does and is happening.
I just found your page while looking for home cures for sinus infection (which I have right now) and surprise! I did have ice cream just before I came down with this. I wanted to inform you that I do not eat any ice creams that contain any artificial additives. Most of what I buy I get from Wholefoods. I just thought that you might want to add this to your statistics for narrowing down the culprit.
It's interesting to find this. I noticed several years ago that if I had a MacDonalds milkshake on my way home (a 45 min. trip) I would cough and have to clear my throat constantly. I concluded (after a couple of instances of this) that I must be alergic to something in their milkshakes. I didn't get the flu or anything, but I stopped drinking the milkshakes all the same. It was just too unpleasant, and I feel sure it was the shakes causing my problems.
I also do not drink milk or eat ice cream anymore. I used to LIVE on it, and I had around the clock sinus infections. I have had two sinus surgeries that didn't seem to help. But recently we started a very WHOLE FOODS diet, we are hardly eating anything that isn't completely fresh. We were drinking raw milk until we couldn't drive to get it anymore and it didn't seem to cause any problems for us. I haven't had any sinus infections.
Then recently I made potato soup with the main ingredient being heavy cream. I had it 3 times in two days because it was so good! It didn't have too many artificials in it, I checked. I have a RAGING sinus infection, and both my kids are sick, and it happened the day after eating this cream based soup. I just looked up a similar heavy cream and here are contents: Heavy Cream, Contains Less than 1% of Each of the Following: Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80 and Carrageenan.
I eat Carageenan in my almond milk so I know that isn't the culprit. I really believe it is the actual CREAM itself not the artificial flavors. Now organic yoghurt does not give me this problem, so I'm wondering it is something with the hormones they give cows? Or maybe its the way that cream is produced. I don't know. I just know that the cream seems to have promoted this infection in all of us.
I could feel the sinus infection coming on, why oh why didnt' I start the ACV protocol right away? I know that would have helped keep it from developing. Oh well. I'm sipping ACV now.
I am thrilled to find this thread about ice cream!!! I do not know where to post this so I wanted it as close to the top as I could get it... ACNE!!!!!! If anyone here suffers from ACNE look into the ice cream connection!!! Growing up I rarely had a pimple and I mean rarely. I have very fair skin with really no visible pores. It never occurred to me to care until I woke up one day and thought a bug had bitten me in the middle of the night because I had a giant hard knot-like thing on my chin... It took weeks for it to go away. Thus began the nightmare of CYSTIC ACNE!!! It took me years to pinpoint it down to ice cream because it was taking 3 months to even begin to heal from breakouts, I couldnt trace the cause. Nobody ever believes me if I tell them "no thanks it makes my skin break out really bad". Not even my husband. I can have relatively clear skin and if I eat it within a couple of days my face is INFECTED!!!! Like no joke infected!!! Itchy scabby bleeding with pus coming out of huge pimples that are as big around as a quarters. (yeah sorry about the visual). I had some cysts that stayed on my face for years without ever coming up or going down or healing. Sometimes they would literally stick off my face like gigantic lumps... It was absolutely disfiguring!!! now my face is wrinkled and dry and oily at the same time after years of tying to get rid of it. It will probably never be nice per se again but at least it's not like that anymore!!! Funny it wasn't a food allergy just the ice cream.
What in the world could they be feeding us?! Nuclear waste!
This makes me so mad... Those poor employees. All I had was a horrendous case of cystic acne. They got a life sentence.
We eat ice cream like once a year well we went over to Cold Stone for ice cream cones. Well when we arrived I drank my usual apple cider vinegar before bed. But my husband did not he woke up the next day with fever and chill he felt sick. NO more chemical laden fake ice cream for us!
Mommypantz (Scottdale, Pennsylvania) on 04/18/2012:
I believe my 5 yr old is definitely feeling the correlation right now. He was on day 3 of his zpak for his sinus infection and feeling so much better. On day 4 he ate a child-size chocolate frosty from Wendy's. Today, day 5, he became feverish and his sinuses are hurting him terribly. He is miserable and keeps waking up crying. I am definately going to keep my eye on his reaction to ice cream and the likes from now on. So glad to have found this thread. Thanks.
Yes. I think dairy could be the culprit. I am 36 years old and have had allergies and asthma from about 4 years old to almost recently. Now, I do not need my inhaler.
All this helped me so I thought I would share:
I cut out all dairy except yogurt (non homogenized but yes pasteurized brand name Erivan Yogurt) which I noticed gives me a subtle boost of energy around 3 PM. Interestingly, Eating yogurt in the morning or noon makes me tired.
No wheat. I eat organic spelt, basmati rice, brown rice, oatmeal. I eat no butter but yes to ghee.
I eat organic...
If I get mucusy, allergy symptoms I take Solgar Vitamin B12 and Modifilan (I open the capsule for my son when he gets colds/allergies and he loves to eat it from the plate). Vitamin B12 in the morning and Modlifan is wakame seaweed which absorbs toxins.
Also Vitamin C only when cold or allergy symptoms come on... But be really careful with children. And maybe opt for a food version high in Vitamin C for a three year old. Google "foods high in Vitamin C"
Mushrooms also supply the body with immune enhancing goodness and vitamin D which converts naturally to the usable Vitamin D with a little sun exposure.
My son had anger tantrums and ADHD pretty bad. The dairy (or rather the way most companies process it and what the add to it) was wreaking havoc on his little body. He was hitting and punching me and his dad. We did not punish him like some relatives and friends were encouraging us to do. And I'm glad we did not. Because we found the root to his behavior (dairy and sugar).
Just took it out of his diet and he still has some lingering behaviors but no where near the stress we were having.
A little dairy or sugar for my 3 year old would make him lose his mind.
Hmmmm... makes me think about the mainstream media and their advertisements about what's healthy for us.....
Body's need calcium, even for ADHD and for asthmatics. And magnesium...
I am looking for some farm fresh yogurt becasue Erivan is about $2 per cup.
Good luck and keep reading. You'll find the answers you need. Be well.
The same thing happened to me I had 2 scoops of 31 flvaors icecream and the next day woke up congested with phlem in my through and other flu symptoms.
I got a 'regular' cold just before Christmas 2011. I did my sinus flush and all, and I was back in business by Monday evening. Of course there are the lingering affects, but I can deal with the symptoms individually. As long as I can sleep, I can recover. Then comes Jan 4. After a long day, I head home, and stop in at Wendy's to get my favorite chocolate Frosty for the trip home. It was delicious as always. Thursday I started feeling the down hill crash and by 5pm, I was toast. I'm just today beginning to feel better (Monday, Jan 9). Head still has tons of gunk. I'm still sinus flushing. Started researching for sinusplasty or something to get rid of this when I came across this article. I think I will be avoiding Wendys et al for a while.
One thing I do plan on trying: Homemade Ice Cream. I want to see if I have a similar reaction. I don't think I will, and I have an excuse for ice cream!
After my son had a soft cream ice cream from a well known multi national, his nose was blocked all night. He had "NEON green" discharge from his nose the next day. I googled "neon green discharge to see what was going on, and was amazed at how many people had flu like systems and neon coloured discharge after eating ice cream.
Icecreamless Gurl (Queens, New York ) on 09/29/2011:
Your amazing. I have been looking this up for years! I am so glad I am not the only one who gets this. About 95% of the time after I eat ice cream I come down with flu-like symptoms, first it starts off as a light sore throat, then a feverish headache, then nausea, upset stomach etc etc. I never got a runny nose. I was convinced that the doctors that removed my tonsils nearly 14 years ago messed up in some way that spoiled my fun of eating ice cream whenever I feel like it, but I have never heard of anyone having that problem after getting their tonsils out. Should definitely look into this more!!!!! I am beyond interested in what's causing this.
Im very happy to find this article. I thought I was imagining things. 3 days ago on sunday I had a vanilla shake at in n out burgers in LA and immediately, while I was drinking it even, I started to have flu symptoms. Now its almost full blown: runny nose, cough, etc. I very rarely eat fast food, once a month usually. And I only eat in n out. But this time I went 2x in the last two weeks. This had never happened before, so I thought I was hallucinating or something. Thats when I turned to the internet for answers. I'm a pretty healthy person, been living in japan for the last decade, but came to america a year ago on a promotion tour for my book black passenger yellow cabs. Living in japan, one cant help but eat healthily, so my body is just not accustomed to artificial flavoring. thanks to you guys, the mystery is solved.
I came online to find a natural remedy for a sinus infection that I woke up with this morning (drinking apple cider vinegar as I type, thank you). Last night I ate a pint of ice cream (Ronnybrook Toasted Hazelnut Crunch), so I was very surprised to see a correlation between the two posted on your site. Pretty amazed actually. I wanted to list the ingredients of the ice cream that I ate because, from what I can tell, there are no chemicals in it. It's from a local dairy farm here in NY, and although it's not certified organic, it's produced without hormones or antibiotics and is supposedly all natural. Maybe there's a connection beyond the chemical additives, a correlation to dairy, sugar, and sinus infections, or something else. I'm certainly not discounting the ill effects of chemical additives. I just thought my experience could be of use in better understanding this connection between ice cream and sinus infections.
(175) 
You want the connection, here it is: Balsam of Peru and Balsam of Tolu.
